Prospect Park's Jeff Kwatinetz: ALL MY CHILDREN, ONE LIFE TO LIVE To Be Streamed On Web (TOLN), Then On-Demand, Then Cable Channel

Prospect Park's Jeff Kwatinetz (pronounced KWAH-tin-ets) was featured in a New York Times piece on Wednesday. He believes the web is now a practical way to funnel traditional shows to viewers (including ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE).

“Seeing the music business morph as it did allows me to see, perhaps earlier than some, what is happening to television,” Kwatinetz said. “A lot of the same mistakes are being made, and in that is opportunity.”

Kwatinetz thinks that television companies, like the record labels before them, are moving too slowly to embrace how viewers want to consume their content: with ease, everywhere. Networks have followed their customers online, but only to a point; the goal is to protect existing revenue streams at all costs.

If the popularity of streamed 30-minute and 60-minute shows on Netflix and Hulu is any indication, consumers are ready to move beyond using the Web for bite-size video, he said.

The Online Network is intended to be financed by Prospect Park, which Mr. Kwatinetz said was profitable, and outside partners. He does not yet have all of those investors lined up — he won’t say how much money he is seeking — but independent investment bankers who have been briefed on Mr. Kwatinetz’s plans said there was strong interest.

Plans call for new episodes to be streamed on the web site and then made available on living room on-demand systems and, a few weeks later, on a traditional cable channel. Mr. Kwatinetz intends to make additional money by selling advertising and syndicating the shows to other Web sites like Hulu or Google.

So how does this latest bit of information make you feel? Are you more confident Prospect Park is going to pull off the transition? Feel the same? Anyone feel worse?

I think these ideas are amazing. As long, as he really remembers the audience that can't afford or can't get internet due to their living locations, this ideal. He also needs to remember that his entire audience helped to build these shows into what they are today. Therefore, they all deserve the opportunity to watch these shows.

I'm really excited about the future and these guys sound great. My one fear is that there is so much focus on the business side of things now that I worry there is complete trust being put in the existing PTB behind the soaps. Frank has done a great job with OLTL and AMC was a very mixed back until the last few months. But both have been up and down over the years. It's the stories that will ultimately keep fans watching so I hope they drop doing things off our 25 Biggest Blunders list and really focus. To win any new fans they need to be really good immediately and stay consistent as long as you can with such budget and time constraints.

Maybe without the ABC interference (See Reader Blunder #1) these teams can produce consistently good shows.

This crap is not going to work. OLTL was down the drain on regular TV networks, so with the economy bad, do they think that people are keeping cable channels in their own, people are cutting back on these type of things, so if they don't pay for premiums channels now because they are cutting back and this is how you get the demand channels, then how are they going to watch this crap, The soaps were bad enough on a 50 in. flat screen, so who's going to strain to watch it on a 15 tp 20 laptop.

This sounds like a perfect situation. Let the new episodes debut online for those that can view them and I totally don't mind waiting to see them a few weeks later on a traditional cable network. I can't view shows online with ease and my 85 year old mother certainly cannot. She will be overjoyed to hear that she'll be able to see AMC and OLTL on a regular cable network.

As long as the first run streaming of the show is not geoblocked and is available to all the fans of the shows who helped save it then this is going to be wildly successful. Hulu is blocked outside the United States. I am hoping the stream will not be. If the shows are blocked outside the US when the launch online then Prospect Park will have a hard time explaning that to the fans who believe that it won't be.

Won't it have to be geoblocked a little? Aren't shows still airing in countries like Germany 2 or 3 years behind the US versions? I could see Canada getting in on the Geo but don't likely see Europe joining a profitable business model with ABC is still getting royalties off foreign distribution that is behind the current storytelling.

The focus on business model is making me very happy as they seem to understand what networks don't ---- that fans are more computer savvy then they are given credit for. The way some people have poo-poo'ed this plan you would think American TV audiences are still using rabbit years on their doublewide.

And I would agree Roger - story will be key. They need to leave stunts behind, focus on character, and not rush every pairing so that the speed at which a pairing is brought together doesn't result in them in bed, engaged, married, and then divorced all in the same year. It's another reason soaps tend to run out of stories to tell.

I just LOVE this site. The VAST majority of your readers are TRUE, LOYAL soap fans. Not posers or those who have nothing good to say about anything (generally, just miserable human beings...like Anon #1 in this thread).

I have complete faith in Prospect Park. The REASON Rich Frank and Jeff K. started this company was because of the mistakes they saw Disney making. They're NOT 'Disney Flunkies'.

It's going to be up to Frank Valentini, OLTL's EP and now PP's VP of Daytime to make sure things come together for the 'new' AMC and OLTL. I don't fear about OLTL.The reason cast members are signing on is because of Frank and Ron continuing. The cast of AMC has been jacked around so much in the last 8 years, they don't know who or what to believe. Let's hope more AMC vets sign on.

With the three outlets Jeff outlined, I'm very excited and hopeful for AMC and OLTL continuing for years to come.

Won't PP just sell international rights like ABC does now for OLTL and AMC to Canada? Doesn't OLTL air on a Canadian station?

To be fair, I can't blame PP for geo-locking programs. They have to make money.

I know a lot of fans watch whole episodes of soaps that have split into 10 minutes chunks on YouTube. That has to end for these shows to survive.

As for the comment about the decline in cable subscribers, I don't disagree. However, broadband internet access is cheaper than cable. Comcast and other cable ISPs have programs that make broadband access available for the poor at $10/month.

Roger,

I agree with you about the uneven writing at both OLTL and AMC. OLTL may be the darling of daytime today but its writing over the last few years goes up and down quickly.

AMC desperately needs a strong writing team. Chuck, David, and Donna were the last in a long line of bad writers.

If anything, both soaps need an injection of some primetime writing assistant. Overall, daytime does a better job of keeping the interest of fans but nighttime soaps can have more sophisticated writing.

I strongly believe the two soaps will make it with PP. Most people DVR that are working so ratings should be able to detect all that are DVR ing programs! Miss AMC already especially since I e been watching since the 70's off & on. I think AMC can really do great story lines without Susan Lucci. OLTL great storylines also! Got my support and vote for all you do to keep these great soaps going!!! Good Luck & will be watching fir the start up of then both!! ;-)

We don't get any ABC shows here in Germany, we get the Bold and the Beautiful. If this thing is going to work, then it has to be available to all world-wide, who are now watching online whereever International blocks are allieviated. I for one will pay to watch OLTL online, I am not in the continental North American region and many of us in Europe would support GH and AMC online when given the option. JUST FYI!

All my Children and One Life to Live fans. If you want to send a message to the TV Networks do not watch the new shows in that time slot. The advertisers will not be happy with low viewers will they? So between me and one reads this agrees pass it forward.

I think it's a great idea. It's only a matter of time before video services are going to available on cell phones. PP is right. There is a market for on demand programming via the web. People aren't home much. They are out and about now and not having "afternoon TV treats." However, TV can still tap into the "on the road" market because, like I said, video services on phone will be happening. What I mean by on the road is airplane rides, commuter train rides and passenger rides on long road trips.